Dirt Bowlhttp://www.louisville.com/taxonomy/term/7020/all
enDirt Bowl Basketball Tournament returns to Louisville [Sports]http://www.louisville.com/content/dirt-bowl-basketball-tournament-returns-louisville-sports
<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/content/dirt-bowl-basketball-tournament-returns-louisville-sports"><img src="http://www.louisville.com/sites/default/files/u4027/dirt%20bowl%201_0.jpg" width="370" height="292" alt="Dirt Bowl returns to Louisville" title="Dirt Bowl returns to Louisville" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>The Dirt Bowl, which for nearly four decades helped produce some of the most promising college and professional basketball players in the country, will return to Louisville&rsquo;s Shawnee Park this summer, Mayor Greg Fischer announced today.&nbsp; &ldquo;We hope to recapture some of that former glory and grow this classic competition into a premier athletic event,&rdquo; Fischer said.</p><p><img alt="bryant dirtbowl.jpg" src="/files/u4027/bryant%20dirtbowl.jpg" style="width: 165px; height: 220px; border-width: 1px; border-style: solid; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px; float: left;" />Fischer &mdash; along with community leader Neal Robertson and Councilwoman Cheri Bryant-Hamilton (seen wearing her Dirt Bowl 2009 T-shirt) &mdash; has been working for months to resurrect the tournament, which ended several years ago due to a variety of factors.</p><p>&ldquo;It was a significant loss for Louisville and a specific loss for Western Louisville,&rdquo; Fischer said. &ldquo;Generations of families came here to sit on bleachers, to share good times and to watch some serious hoops.&rdquo;</p><p>Local and national greats who&rsquo;ve played in past Dirt Bowls include Clem Haskins and Jim McDaniels, Dan Issel, Wes Unseld, Darryl Griffith and Derek Anderson.</p><p>The 42nd Annual Dirt Bowl will be June 30 and July 1, 7, 8, 14, 15 and August 4, 5, 11 and 12, the date of the championship game.</p><p>Tournament application fee is $250 and women&rsquo;s and children&rsquo;s fees are $50. To join the tournament, contact Robertson at 664-0780.</p><p>The Dirt Bowl was created by Ben Watkins as a way to bring basketball and family-style picnics together for the good of the neighborhood and for the spirit of competition.</p><p>The city&rsquo;s parks department, now called Metro Parks, helped host the first tournament in 1969 and for many years it was considered the essence of summer league basketball.</p><p>The new Dirt Bowl won&rsquo;t just be a basketball tournament &ndash; it also will be a community event and celebration. A job fair will be held which will include U.S Army recruiters and others.</p><p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ynu6WloslBE?rel=0" width="420"></iframe><script type="text/javascript">
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